On Mises Weekends, Jeff is joined by John Williams of Shadowstats.com. With the media obsessed with fake news, it’s worth remembering that statistics issued by the federal government about the economy, from CPI to GDP, are themselves fake. John is a vocal critic of modern economic reporting, which is manipulated to make the economy appear stronger than it is. So he devoted his professional life to telling the real story, through statistics he painstakingly compiles himself. And his statistics paint an alarming picture: virtually all "growth" in the US economy since the Crash of '08 has been artificially engineered by the Fed, while the risk of debt contagion has increased. We discuss the "Fed tax," what a radical increase in the monetary base means for your financial future, and whether Janet Yellen will be forced to resort to more QE in 2017.

This is a must-hear interview if you're interested in sober economic reality.